


we're in this together

by anthones



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: F/M, M/M, Trans Female Character, Trans Male Character
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-01-03
Updated: 2014-01-03
Packaged: 2018-01-07 08:09:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 864
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1117531
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/anthones/pseuds/anthones
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>She looks in the mirror and isn’t sure she likes what she sees. / Tony puts his head in his hands for a moment, trying really hard not to think about their size or shape.</p>
            </blockquote>





	we're in this together

She looks in the mirror and isn’t sure she likes what she sees.

It isn’t a new thing—for what woman hasn’t disliked her appearance at some point in her life?—but she thought she was old enough that it would stop. She realizes now that was a silly assumption. You didn’t out grow things like that, no matter how much it felt like you should.

Her hips are narrow, her shoulders are not. Her height. Her hands. She’s made small adjustments here and there, more so for the rest of the world (and, admittedly, Tony) than for herself. She likes the way she looks now, yes. She doesn’t regret the surgeries at all, but it wasn’t her needs that had initiated the change. Fitting in had been higher up on her ever growing list of priorities than making a body that she loved (and even that had been below making sure a certain engineer made it to all the meetings he was supposed to). But it’s okay because she’s really close to loving herself now. Really close. She can almost feel it.

And even with some…  _things_  still being there, Pepper is almost completely okay with herself. She figures everyone has those little things they still aren’t happy about. It’s part of being normal, isn’t it?

There’s movement in the bedroom behind her and Pepper knows her boys are finally getting up. She glances towards the door, trying to gauge how much time she has before Bruce wanders into the bathroom (and only Bruce, because Tony won’t be up for at  _least_  another hour). And then she looks back at her naked body in the mirror and thinks she’s close enough to normal for her own tastes. Bruce coming up behind her and wrapping his arms around her, sleepily nuzzling her neck, only cements this fact.

 

“Hey, you there,” she says, pointing. “What do you think you’re doing?”

Tony looks up from his work and quirks an eyebrow. Pepper bothering him in the lab isn’t new, but usually she at least looks professional. When it’s not official work business, she tends to leave him alone. Right now she's in either in one of his shirts or Bruce's and her underwear. Stark Industries could be a little lax about dress codes, but not  _that_ lax.

“I’m working,” he says, gesturing to the drawing in front of him. His tone implies his belief of her having gone blind. Pepper rolls her eyes and walks over to him, draping her upper body over his shoulders.

“Why on Earth are you doing  _work_  when you’ve got two incredibly attractive people in your bed?” she asks. Her voice is soft and low in his ear and it sends shivers down his spine.

Tony shrugs. He isn’t really sure. Well, he sort of is, but it’s not in a way that he can just tell Pepper. Even though she is Pepper and she’s heard worse things from him. There’s no reason he shouldn’t tell her and yet. “Technically there’s only one person there, if you’re here,” he says instead.

Pepper hrrumphs in his ear and that makes him smile despite himself and everything in his stupid head. She stands, though, and he knows things are going to get more serious. That makes him want to close off just a little more.

“What’s wrong?” she asks, running her hands through his hair. Usually it would relax him, but not tonight. Pepper seems to sense this and she stops. “Any other night you’d be all over us.” Tony thinks her tone should be joking, but it’s not. She just sounds worried for him and that makes it worse.

“I… know. It’s just a bad night. You know?” Of course she knows. They all know. It’s part of what made them so perfect for each other. Usually he would just want to curl up with her and Bruce and forget about the rest of the world. Forget everything that happened to him before meeting either of them and even some of the shit after, too. But right now all he wants is to work. Bruce might understand, but he’s not sure Pepper does. Maybe it’s a science thing.

Pepper doesn’t say anything and Tony feels like he should but he doesn’t want to. He sits silently and waits for her to go away so he can sit in his misery all alone. It’s stupid to shun the people who love you and he knows that, but he can’t stop it right now. In the morning he’ll crawl into bed with them and won’t stop apologizing until they busy his mouth with other things and they’ll be okay again, probably, but right now he needs her to leave.

“Okay,” she finally says and her hands aren’t on his shoulders anymore. Tony stares at the drawings in front of him and listens to her walk away. “Have fun with your tinkering.” The bitterness in her voice is hardly noticeable. So subtle, in fact, that he’s not sure if he’s imagining it or not.

Tony puts his head in his hands for a moment, trying really hard not to think about their size or shape. 

 


End file.
